Flint voters to decide in November if marijuana will be decriminalized

FLINT, MI -- Flint voters will be able to decide in November whether or not marijuana will be decriminalized in the city after Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz approved the ballot initiative on Monday.

Michael Randolph | The Bay City Times
Marijuana plants in an undisclosed grow room.

Kurtz agreed to place the initiative on the Nov. 6 general election ballot that would exempt anyone 19 years or older with less than one ounce of
marijuana on private property from city code prohibitions of cannabis.

Marijuana would remain illegal under state and federal laws.

The proposal, if approved by voters, would also allow the possession of any marijuana paraphernalia on private property.

Flint City Clerk Inez Brown said petition organizers submitted more than 1,000 signatures in support of the initiative.

Brown said that her staff was able to validate enough signatures to send the initiative to Kurtz.

The number of valid signatures needed to get
the measure on the ballot is 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last
mayoral election, according to Brown.

According to Flint Journal files, Mayor Dayne Walling received
8,819 votes and challenger Darryl Buchanan received 6,868 last November,
meaning at least 784 signatures will have to be validated.

Brian
Morrissey of the Coalition for a Safer Flint, the group that gathered the
signatures, could not immediately be reached for comment on the approval but said previously that the initiative could help free up police resources.

"There are still quite a few people being arrested for minor
possession of small amounts of marijuana," Morrissey said previously. I think the citizens of Flint are
definitely ready to see their police resources used more efficiently. I think
this is a no-brainer."